Music and Movement with Bonnie

During our class with Bonnie, we sang and danced to Hannukah and Christmas music. Since the Nutcracker story was so popular with the kids, Bonnie was nice enough to bring it back one more time before the holidays! :)

Everyone listened closely to The Nutcracker music while Bonnie told the story.

We then listened to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Everyone got the chance to pick out either a Santa hat, or reindeer antlers. John and Nolan paired up, so Nolan the reindeer could fly Santa John's sleigh :)

Saige and Layla pulled Quinn's sleigh.

Tiny Tribe graduates Jackson and True paired up. True was Prancer and Jackson was the Santa.

Silly reindeers and Santas!

Reid Visits His Old Centipede Buddies

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Yoga Babies

This free slideshow design personalized with Smilebox We want to give a big thank you to Jennifer Carroll for taking time out of her day and teaching yoga to the Tiny Tribe kids! The kids enjoy and look forward to every Wednesday!

Celebrating Winter Solstice

Today was our Yoga class at 8 Limbs Studio. We celebrated Winter Solstice with Yoga poses.

The Centipedes played "I Spy" before class.

Our friend Reid, who is a Tiny Tribe graduate came to visit us today. Finn, Reid, Layla and Eli all gave eachother hugs and kisses!

One of our Moon and Sun yoga poses. We began to sit up and stretch our arms big and wide like the sun, moon and stars.

Sensory Table

Today we took out the sensory table and the kids were surprised to find what was inside! We purchased some Aquarium gravel and sand from across the street at Petco and added it to our sensory table. The kids loved searching to find the gems and marbles too!

Reid, a Tiny Tribe graduate that came to visit us today, had fun seperating the gravel and marbles :)

Reid showed the camera what he found.

Eli added all the gems and marbles he could find to his measuring cup.

Grace loved the colors she could see in the sensory table. Pink, Orange, Blue and Purple.

Ella found most of the gems!

The Dreidel Game

Playing with the dreidel is a traditional Hanukkah game played in Jewish homes all over the world. Here's how to play the basic dreidel game:

1. Each player begins the game with an equal number of game pieces, which are chocolate coins called "gelt".

2. At the beginning of each round, every participant puts one game piece into the center "pot." In addition, every time the pot is empty or has only one game piece left, every player should put one in the pot.

4. Every time it's your turn, spin the dreidel once. Depending on the outcome, you give or get game pieces from the pot.

a) Nun means "nisht" or "nothing" [in Yiddish]. The player does nothing.
b) Gimmel means "gantz" or "everything" [in Yiddish]. The player gets everything in the pot.
c) Hey means "halb" or "half" [in Yiddish]. The player gets half of the pot. (If there is an odd number of pieces in the pot, the player takes half of the total plus one).
d) Shin (outside of Israel) means "shtel" or "put in" [in Yiddish]. Peh (in Israel) means "pay." The player adds a game piece to the pot.

5. If you find that you have no game pieces left, you are either "out" or may ask a fellow player for a "loan."

6. When one person has won everything, that round of the game is over!

Can you guess which part of the game the children typically love the most?

Hey- wait a minute, this isn't ordinary money!

Gelt tastes good, mmmmmm, chocolate!

Celebrating the First Night of Hanukkah

We are celebrating three different holidays this week! Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, and Sunday is Christmas. During circle time today we talked about the Winter Solstice and how tomorrow will be the shortest (and therefore the darkest) day of the year. Even in the coldest and darkest season, the soft glow of the menorah's candles and the twinkling lights on the Christmas tree remind us that even in the darkness there is warmth and light inside each of us. We can shine our light by being kind to each other and the world.

Today we made menorah crafts to take home, played the driedel game, and lit one candle for the first night of Hanukkah. Layla was excited to share her holiday traditions with her friends.

The tiny glittering flames and candles were not easy to put together but the preschoolers were up for the challenge. Bodhi used his fine motor skills and persistence to complete the project.

We each took turns lighting the menorah while Jena sang the blessing (for the miracle of light) in Hebrew.

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Holiday Crafts

Luka is concentrating very hard while she took off the tiny stickers of the candles and put them on her menorah.

Dorothy didn't need any help and was a great helper with the other children.

Ella made a dragonfly out of wax strips.

Here are some of the creations the kids made. John and Eli made snowmen and Dorothy made a lollypop.

Finn was excited to show off his menorah he made.

Lena was busy picking out many different colors for her stain glass window project.

Saige decided to decorate her whole tree with many different colors of tissue paper.

John was proud of the menorah he made all by his self.

Gak!

Luka is quite sure what it is, so she felt the gak with her fingers first.

Saige is rolling her gak into small balls to make a snowman.

Nolan is making a hand print inside of his bowl. He said it felt "cold".

Here is Eli making hand prints.

Dorothy and Shai thought it would be a great idea to make gak this morning. They both helped Jena make gak for everyone. Thanks girls!

Lena is feeling the sensation of the slimy gak between her fingers.

John decided to take his out of the bowl and spread it out on the table.

Ice Skating

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Our crew had a fantastic time at Seattle Center today. We explored the center house where we walked around a huge electric train track, set up perfectly at preschool-eye-level height. As we watched the train and each took a turn being conductor, we listened as a local kids choir sang holiday songs.

Ice skating seems like quite the en devour for two and three-year olds, but they make it easy by providing little child-sized walkers. Scott, Carrie, and Jena took them on the ice one at-a-time while the others thoroughly enjoyed people-watching and popcorn from the sidelines.

Torry, Kaya's big sister and Tiny Tribe alumni, was our special kindergarten helper for the day. After one spin around with the walker she realized she didn't need one and was happy to help the little ones skate around.